The Linux transformation is going well but not completely as planned, Messman acknowledged. Among other things, Novell hasn't had the success it wanted in North America, where SuSE Linux trails rival Red Hat.

Messman's assessment of that weakness--and some progress fixing it--is borne out by a recent survey of 440 North American information technology managers published in January by securities firm SG Cowen. In a comparison of the percentage of sites that rely on different versions of Linux, Red Hat slipped from 86 percent in 2003 to 72 percent from November 2003 to January 2005, while Novell gained from 21 percent to 33 percent over the same period.

Messman, 64, has been a Novell board member since 1985--Novell's glory days selling NetWare--and became president and CEO when Novell bought his company, Cambridge Technology Partners, in 2001.

Q: How would you assess the Linuxization of Novell?
A: When we did the merger with Cambridge Technology Partners and Silverstream, the strategy wasn't clear to our employees. They were still in this hunkered-down mode of protecting NetWare against Microsoft. Once we focused on Linux, they started to get it. In less than a year, we educated the entire staff. They embraced it. They saw how they wouldn't have to give up NetWare to get to Linux. They saw Open Enterprise Server as a good move. The morale is up. They see us in an offensive mode rather than a defensive mode.

We got a little bit of DNA from Ximian and SuSE that has permeated our entire company. Now we've started to cross-fertilize. We had a few emotional wars early on with KDE and GNOME (two competing graphical user interfaces). We solved that by putting them both in the Novell desktop and letting the customers decide.

We used to have trouble (getting noticed). Linux was like a flashlight. It shined light on Linux and Novell. Talking about Linux...got us in the door.

So you think it's been good culturally and technologically. How has it been from the business side?
We used to have trouble (getting noticed). Linux was like a flashlight. It shined light on Linux and Novell. Talking about Linux...got us in the door...to talk about other things we had, like identity management. The common comment was, 'I didn't know you guys did that.' Customers are now understanding better what we're trying to do. The identity management thing was tougher. Initially, we were trying to sell it as a directory. People said, 'What the hell is a directory?' If you talk about identity management, they get it.

But how are you doing on revenue?
The key reason for getting into the Linux business in the first place was figuring out what to do with the decline of NetWare. We won't know whether that strategy is working until we ship the OES (Open Enterprise Server) product at the beginning of next month. We hope that will arrest the decline of NetWare. We're expecting that's going to happen. Even though revenues are up 2 (percent) to 3 percent, embedded that is a 10 (percent) to 15 percent decline last year from NetWare. If you separated out NetWare, the rest of the business grew at 10 percent.

One of the goals of the SuSE acquisition was to combine it with Novell's marketing power in North America to take on Red Hat. How is SuSE doing in North America now?
Red Hat had a seven- or eight-year lead. I don't think people switch that quickly in the infrastructure market. I think the differences we have are just starting to show up in the marketplace. We've only owned SuSE for 13 months.

The best advertising we did last year was the acquisition of SuSE Linux. Now we're in the process of bringing out the differentiators. The SuSE Linux kernel (the heart of Linux) is the same for everybody, so the question is what do you have that makes the difference? We've got

About the author

Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and covers browsers, Web development, digital photography and new technology. In the past he has been CNET's beat reporter for Google, Yahoo, Linux, open-source software, servers and supercomputers. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces.
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